Stockholm is where the heart is

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After an unimpressive start, Sweden has won us over and it seems a shame to leave – and I certainly didn't expect to leave with a tan! Our last couple of days have been really nice. We drove up the side of Lake Vättern, Sweden's second largest lake and the sixth largest lake in Europe (it's the taking part that counts), to see yet another rune stone. This one was from the 8th century and has the longest runic inscription on record – so how do they protect and care for this priceless slice of history? They build a gazebo over it and paint in all the runes with Hammerite. Sacrilege. We also saw our first Ikea store in its natural habitat. Still no moose though.

We caught a train in to Stockholm which, I have to say, is a stunning city. It's literally dazzling – there are just so many things to look at and the architecture is amazing. It has been especially beautiful because of the glorious sunshine. The sudden heatwave has brought all the young, blonde Swedes out from wherever they hibernate and we had great fun watching them all turn from anaemic white to blistered pink (both colours available from Farrow & Ball).

As we were walking through the city, a brass band and lots of Swedish troops marched by. We followed them up to the Royal Palace where they did a sort of changing the guard thing. It was all very serious with lots of pomp and ceremony. Then once the guard had been changed or whatever it was they were doing, the band started playing Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 – you wouldn't get that at Buckingham Palace! Very surreal.

The "Sweden's really expensive" thing was debunked with a 'dagens' lunch. This is a set lunchtime menu that some of the traditional restaurants do. For 80SK (about £8) I had a help-yourself salad, köttbullar (traditional meatballs of unidentified origin) with potatoes and loganberries, a glass of beer and as much coffee as I could stomach afterwards. Bargain. We took a boat trip around the city before retiring back to our campsite to be slowly devoured by mosquitoes.

We are now on the Baltic Queen cruising past the alleged 30,000 islands that make up the Stockholm archipelago (a lot of those are just rocks) on our way to Tallinn, Estonia. The boat is surprisingly swish with several bars, discos, shops and entertainment – much nicer than the DFDS ferry to Denmark. The balding Estonian house band, Night Star, are currently serenading us with their own interpretations of classics such as "We are living in yellow submarines" and "Raindrops keep falling down my head". This all bodes well for our stay in Estonia.

Comments

  1. gaz6 June 2011 at 23:19

    http://www.thelocal.se/12296/20080608/#

    ReplyDelete
  2. Foxy Will6 June 2011 at 23:39

    Quote of the day: "The first signs that something was amiss came when a life vest, sand and some rubbish suddenly came to life."

    ReplyDelete

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